


A Gentle Touch

by Rhube



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Brief mention of Past Abuse, Ear Kink, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2018-11-09 11:35:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11103762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhube/pseuds/Rhube
Summary: Kink meme fill: Fenris's ears are injured/infected. Anders takes care of him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't going to be a long one. Maybe two or three chapters. Current rating is a guestimate. First chapter is suitable for teens, not sure yet how racy it might get.

"What?" Fenris asked, struggling to hear the mage above the hubbub in the Hanged Man.

"I said, _you should let me take a look at your ears_ ," Anders said, with exaggerated loudness. "You hardly seem to hear anything these days and you're always fingering them. You might have an infection. Or wax build up."

Isabela sniggered. "'Fingering', is it? You know, I could finger your ears for you, Fenris..."

He glared at both of them. "My ears are fine," he said. "It's just noisy in here."

Varric frowned at him. "It's not _that_ noisy in here, Broody. You sure you don't want to let Blondie take a look?"

"Him and his magic can keep well enough away from me," Fenris insisted. "There's nothing wrong!"

Anders rolled his eyes. "You don't seem to mind me and my magic so much in battle when you've a sword in your gut."

"Do I _have_ a sword in my gut?" Fenris asked, his look withering.

Anders sighed.

"Then I don't _need_ you poking around my body."

Anders held up his hands. "Fine. Whatever. I offered. And just so you know? I might not even need to use magic to heal it. But be like that if you want. It's no skin off my nose if some slaver creeps up behind you because you couldn't hear them coming."

Fenris left their gathering early, and in a foul mood. To his great annoyance, Anders' words had struck a chord. His ears had started to ache, lately, though he could see nothing wrong with them when he peered at them in the broken mirror of his bedroom, it was a little worrying. He had been missing things in battle - couldn't quite make out the things Hawke was shouting. He'd refused to believe it was anything serious, but what if it was? What if he was going deaf? Would he permit Anders to heal him then? Did it not amount to the same as a sword in the guts if he could no longer fight effectively and was putting other people in danger?

What if Danarius came for him and he missed something crucial because he couldn't hear it?

The last thing he wanted was an abomination fiddling about with something as sensitive as his ears, but could he risk it?

Fenris slept fitfully and woke with a headache as well as a sore and kind of blocked feeling about his ears. It was no good. He would have to see the mage.

Fenris slunk into Darktown as inconspicuously as he could. He felt like every eye marked his passage. With his tattoos, white hair, and expensive armour, he was conscious that he so clearly did not belong. Knew that other elves often resented him for his apparent wealth. He tried to ignore them, sidling into the clinic and lurking at the back whilst Anders worked on other patients.

The mage was a little different, here, to how Fenris saw him with Hawke and the others. He seemed absorbed in his craft. The intensity he usually put into arguing and making a general pain of himself devoted to the person before him, identifying their problem and fixing it.

And he was kind, Fenris grudgingly admitted, as Anders sat patiently talking to a little girl who was refusing to open her hand to show him a splinter. He seemed to really listen, and by the time he was done with the girl, she was smiling and happy again. And no magic used, Fenris noted.

He hoped it would be the same with him.

When the work had died down and the other patients had left, Anders finally looked up at him. "Come on then. What is it? Your ears, finally?"

Fenris looked down and shuffled his feet. "I do not wish to be a danger in battle," he admitted.

"OK, fine, whatever finally got you in to get it sorted is fine by me. Sit down over here where the light's better."

Fenris moved over to take the indicated seat whilst Anders rummaged in a bag.

"Hah!" he exclaimed. "Knew I had one somewhere! You're lucky. Things like this are expensive, but I treated myself to one a year ago after a particularly generous donation. You'd be surprised how many children get ear infections down here, and it can make things miserable for them and the whole family."

Fenris eyed the device suspiciously. It looked dwarven-made. Some kind of stick with a thing on the top that was fat on one end and narrow on the other. "What is it?"

"It lets me see into your ear canal," Anders said. "Don't worry, no magic involved. Can I take a look?"

Fenris shrugged. He supposed this was what he'd come here for.

Anders sat down beside him on the bench and gently took the tip of his ear between his fingers.

Fenris inhaled sharply. It had been so long since someone else had touched him there. Elven ears were extremely sensitive, and Anders' gentle but firm touch was surprisingly stimulating.

The touch vanished. "Sorry, I thought you were ready."

Fenris cleared his throat. "No, it's fine. Go ahead."

Warm fingers on thin skin again, pressing lightly against the ridges of cartilage, and then something cold and hard pressing into his ear hole, bringing him back into focus.

Anders moved close beside him, peering into his ear, the heat of his body distractingly close.

"Mmm," Anders said. "I thought that might be it."

Fenris pulled away from him. "What?"

"Let me take a look at the other side first," the mage said.

"Mage, tell me what it is," Fenris said, worried now.

Anders snorted, settling down on the other side of him. "Relax. If the other side is the same then it's just about the least serious thing it could be, and you won't even need any magic to fix it."

Relief flooded him, and as Anders' fingers ran along the edge of his ear and pressed it back against his skull, he completely failed to suppress the moan that rose in response.

Anders' fingers disappeared from Fenris's ear and wide eyes met his. "Sorry," Anders said, his pale skin flushing a surprising bright red. "I - umm - I forgot that..." his eyes glanced at Fenris's ear and then away again. "I didn't think that would be a problem, what with the way you... sorry. I mean because obviously..." he took a deep breath and seemed to gather himself. "That was unprofessional of me. It's perfectly natural. Elven ears are very sensitive. Don't feel embarrassed about it. I know it doesn't mean anything."

" _Mage_ ," he said with a note of warning.

"Are you OK with me continuing the examination?" he asked.

Fenris glared at him, covering his own disquiet at how the mage's touch had sent a pleasurable shiver through him. "Get on with it."

"Right," Anders said. "Right."

When he touched Fenris's ear this time it was just a single finger pressed to the tip. Fenris hated himself for the impulse to shift just to make that finger move along his flesh again. He'd never felt anything quite like it.

Oh, Danarius had played with his ears - took delight in the idea that he was pleasuring the elf, sometimes. At others he would twist them cruelly, but... Anders' touch hadn't been anything like that. While it might not have been a lover's caress, it had been soft and gentle and...

The cold press of the metal instrument against his ear was a welcome distraction.

Then Anders released him and sat back.

"It's wax build up," he declared.

"Wax?"

"Yes," Anders replied. "It's quite common, actually. Earwax should work it's way out in it's own time, taking dirt with it, but some people produce too much and it starts to build. You've got quite a solid plug in both ears. I can get them out for you, but you'll need to soften them up first. No magic, but it will be annoying."

Fenris stared. "What do I have to do?"

"Olive oil," Anders said. "Warm, but not hot. A few drops in each ear. Let it sit for a minute and soak into the wax with your head on one side - lying down's probably easiest. Do that every day for seven days and then come back - we'll see if we can flush them out. With water. Not magic."

"That's it?" Could it be that simple?

"Well, you'll probably find your hearing will get worse while you're doing it - the oil tends to fill up any spaces around the wax and can get stuck behind it. If you're worried about that you could do one side for the first seven days, come in, get it sorted, and then do the other."

Fenris wrinkled his nose, he didn't want to draw it out, but if it really did make his hearing temporarily worse it might be better to do one at a time. "I... will see how it goes with one."

Anders nodded. "Good. We're done, then. I'll see you in seven days, if not before."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fenris has some wet dreams in which a certain mage is an unwitting star. He then tries to behave normally when he goes to have his first ear cleared out.

Hot lips skirted the skin of his ear, sending a shiver through his body that went straight to his cock. They closed around the tip, nibbled gently.

Fenris groaned and writhed at the attention.

Warm breath and a tongue licking a wet trail down his ear, washing over his earlobe, darting under the edge. Then a warm mouth enveloping the shell of his ear. He groaned again.

"Anders..."

Fenris awoke with a start.

 _What...?_ Had he...? Had he really been dreaming about Anders pleasuring his ear?

An ache from his nether region suggested he might have. And the worst of it was that his treacherous mind longed to return to the dream. He rolled over and buried his face in his pillow, groaning now with frustration.

He'd never had such a vivid dream. He rarely even had a sense of touch when he was dreaming, and this had been, well, so _stimulating_.

"Damn mage!" Who knew something as small as a gentle touch in the right place could spark such feelings? And that was all it was, after all. Anders had been the first person to touch him in such an intimate place since Danarius. No need to read anything more meaningful into it than that. It's not like it had been a caress, the mage had been fairly clinical about the whole thing.

Sleep having fled, Fenris determined to shake free of the dream as well. He took a cold bath, then headed to the kitchen to prepare the olive oil for his treatment.

***

It was constantly having to fiddle with his ears that made the dream recur. It wasn't just the application; Anders had been right that the oil cut out even more sound than the wax had. He'd been forced to turn down Hawke for two jobs and was left with nothing to do but kick around the dilapidated mansion he was squatting in.

He did drag himself out to meet the others for Wicked Grace on the third day, but by that point his mood was pretty sour.

"Cheer up, Broody," the dwarf said, "It may never happen."

"It already has," Fenris muttered darkly. "The mage's so-called 'treatment' has made me twice as deaf as I was before."

Anders rolled his eyes. "I told you it would do that."

"Yes," Fenris snapped. "I know."

Yet he felt regret when Anders shifted away from him and spent the evening mostly talking to Hawke and Isabela. His condition was not the mage's fault, and he had been warned about what the treatment would do.

And if his eyes couldn't help but linger on the mage's long fingers wrapped around his cards... well. At least his foul mood meant that no one was likely to guess the line his thoughts kept skirting back to. The fantasy of the mage gently stroking his ears to help him relax.

 _Maker_.

***

After the prescribed seven days of warm oil, Fenris forced himself to go back to Anders' clinic, hoping the mage would remain unaware of his secret dreams and half hope that his fingers would slip again and the touch would become something more.

"Wait over there," Anders said when he came in, and Fenris had to crush the irrational lurch in his stomach that rose at Anders' dismissiveness.

He didn't actually _want_ anything more from the mage, after all. Could barely stand his self-righteous company. And, as though it could be forgotten, he was a _mage_. Most of the time the idea of a mage - any mage - touching him made his skin crawl.

But sitting here, waiting for Anders to touch him again. Well.

Finally Anders finished what he was doing and came over. "Let's take a look at you," he said.

Fenris shifted uncomfortably, eyeing the other patients who were still waiting. "You... may see to the others first," he said.

Anders rolled his eyes. "I usually see people in the order they come in, unless there's something urgent. It's fine."

Fenris shook his head, irritated to feel the heat rise in his cheeks. "I... would rather have more... privacy," he admitted, avoiding Anders' eyes. "Anything... anything to do with our ears. It's... very intimate. Even though you're just treating them, I'd rather not have other people present when you're touching me there," he admitted.

"Oh," Anders said, stepping back. "OK, I didn't realise. I'll get through the others as fast as I can and then put the lantern out for a while, OK?"

Fenris nodded, still not looking directly at the mage.

Anders did move quickly, although with no less care, and fortunately the needs of his other patients seemed relatively minor. Within half an hour he had closed the door behind the last of them and beckoned Fenris over to a chair he'd set aside by the sink.

"Come over here," he said. "I'll take a look down your ear, and if the oil's been doing its job we'll have a go at flushing the wax out, OK?"

Fenris nodded uncertainly. "OK." He sat down with his back to the sink, and waited for Anders to touch him.

The mage, completely oblivious to what was going on inside his mind, was all business. He pulled a stool up beside Fenris and pressed gently on the tip of his ear to hold it back whilst he peered down his instrument into Fenris's ear canal.

The touch sent a pleasant thrill through Fenris. Not remotely the levels of erotic stimulation he'd felt in his dreams, but in some sense better, because it was real.

"OK, it's looking good," said Anders, getting up to fiddle with something behind him.

When he came back into view he was holding a long tube that ended in some kind of bulbous bladder. "I'm going to use this to pump water into your ear. You might feel some pressure, but it shouldn't hurt. Tell me if it does."

"OK," Fenris said, looking at the device with concern.

Anders settled back down and put the end of the tube to Fenris's ear - its hard, cold presence wasn't remotely arousing, which was almost a relief. "Lean your head back over the sink," Anders said, and Fenris did so.

"I'm going to start now."

The rush of water into his ear gave rise to a surprisingly cacophonous sound. At the same time, water flowing over his ear was enough like the wet track of the dream-mage that Fenris gasped.

"Sorry, I know it's cold," Anders said, and Fenris swallowed down a moan as Anders perfunctorily brushed the water from his sensitive skin. "I might have to do this a few times."

He turned away to refill the bladder, and Fenris concentrated on calming the flutter that rose inside him. He would not embarrass himself in front of the mage as he had last time.

Anders turned back and pressed the tube at the entrance of his ear again. There was another harsh rush of water. And then, just as the pressure was starting to become uncomfortable, Fenris felt something hot and solid dislodge from inside and flow out of his ear into the sink.

Astonished, he turned round to look, his worries of moments before temporarily forgotten. There was a small yellow-brown cylinder of gunk resting in the bottom of the sink. "Is that it?" he asked, rubbing his ear.

Anders grinned. "Yup. How do you feel?"

Fenris sat back and took in the sounds around him - not just Anders, but the distant noise of the Foundry and the residents of Darktown. As he shifted in his seat, the sound of his armour rubbing against his leggings seemed unnaturally loud - it was like the world was crackling with new noises. "Everything seems... louder, but not everything is louder in the same way?" he said, not sure quite how to express it.

Anders nodded. "Yeah, you'll have been straining to hear higher pitched noises without even realising it. Your ear won't have adapted to the change yet. Give it a few hours. Things will start sounding normal again... and then we'll do it all again next week on the other side!" He seemed to be positively gloating, and laughed when Fenris glared at him.

"Thank you," Fenris said, grudgingly. "It is... a lot better." And it was, even as strange and loud and lopsided as everything sounded now. He was forced to admit that it did seem as though Anders might completely save his hearing.

"No problem," the mage said. "Now scram. I need to open up the clinic again."

And Fenris found himself bustled out, feeling in some ways good, but also slightly bereft, and not entirely sure what of.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hawke asks Fenris to help him with a job for Anders, but Fenris still doesn't feel safe to fight. Later, he goes to the clinic for his second treatment and finds all is not as expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick one as I'm preparing to move house and don't have much time to write.

Fenris was a little worried for a while at the strange crackling of tiny sounds that now filled one ear, whilst the other felt dead. But eventually the difference faded, and he felt a pleasant kind of hope that in a few days' time he would be completely cured.

And gratitude. He felt grateful to Anders for helping him. Even though he had spurned the offer, then grumbled about side effects the mage had made sure he knew to expect.

Anders, as a healer, was not what he had expected.

He followed the man's advice dutifully, and even found himself looking forward to seeing the mage again.

So it was with regret that he found he had to turn Hawke down when she came to ask for Fenris's help on a task for Anders.

"I'm sorry Hawke. Next week I can help you again," he said. "Just not today."

Hawke sighed dramatically and leant back on the door frame. "I know you don't get on, Fenris. And I know helping the mage underground isn't really your cup of tea, but... Anders was pretty agitated about this one. If he's wrong, and it's a big fuss over nothing, you can gloat. But if he's right... I really feel like we need another warrior along. Aveline's coming, but I feel like we need someone else who's a bit less, well, squishy. Come on. Be the big strong hero. Please?"

Fenris frowned. It was true he wanted little to do with the mage underground. Anders exaggerated the troubles mages faced - he had no idea what real hardship was like, and his constant likening of the Circles to slavery was infuriating. Mages were safer in the Circles, and so was everyone else. But he owed Anders. And a part of him genuinely wanted to try to get to know the man better. But...

"I'm sorry, Hawke," he said. "It's not about that. I wouldn't be an asset to you until my other ear has been fixed. Everything sounds... out of place. I will misjudge things in battle, and that's dangerous."

Hawke sighed. "Well, I tried. You can't say I didn't try." She pouted at him and left.

It would be fine. It was always fine. Aveline would be there, and Hawke had plenty of other friends to call on. He would find another way to pay Anders back for the healing.

***

Fenris dreamt of Anders only twice that week, and the dreams were reassuringly less... sexual; although Fenris again felt an unfamiliar tension in them. The dreams were bare fragments upon waking. But he thought he'd dreamt of helping Anders with something, or maybe he'd just been spending time with the man. He wasn't sure, but there was something...

By the time he was due to have his other ear flushed, the thought of seeing Anders actually made him smile.

So he was not merely surprised, but a little disappointed to find the clinic door closed and the lantern out.

Fenris frowned and knocked. "Mage?"

There was no answer.

Fenris activated the lyrium in his markings and phased his hand through the door, slipping the latch. The familiar pain made him grunt, but he ignored it, opening the door. Anders was crouched to one side, pouring milk out into a shallow bowl.

"What are you doing, mage?"

He continued fussing with the bowl. "The lantern's out, Fenris. Whatever it is, you can come back later."

Fenris frowned. "You told me to come here."

"What?" irritated, Anders looked up. His face looked somehow greyer, more gaunt than ever.

"My ear," Fenris gestured toward it.

Understanding dawned across Anders' face, but was swiftly replaced by irritation as he stood. "It can wait, Fenris. What - did you think that'd be a good excuse for coming here to gloat? Just... just leave me alone, OK? I - I can't do this right now."

Fenris blinked uncertainly. "I - what would I be gloating about? I just... I just came here, _as you advised,_ for my treatment. What happened?"

"Oh, as if you don't know!" Anders spat. "Look. Just... get out. The door was closed. The lantern was out. You shouldn't even have come in. Don't pretend you don't know what I - what I almost..." He turned away, breathing hard. "Just get out, Fenris. I'll deal with your fucking ears some other time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I managed to find a way to make the silly ear kink fic angsty. Sorry. I couldn't help myself.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fenris discovers what has happened to Anders and looks for a way to mend fences with the mage and help him feel better.

Fenris's was stunned by the mage's ire. Disappointment mixed with frustration, as he had no idea what it was that had made the mage turn on him. They hadn't been on good terms as such, but Fenris had never seen Anders refuse someone healing before, and the man clearly thought Fenris's presence was about something other than simple treatment.

What could he possibly have had to gloat about to Anders?

Had something happened on the mission Anders had been on with Hawke? Did Anders resent that Fenris had refused to join? Surely he must understand Fenris's reasons for refusing. It was Anders who had first suggested that Fenris's condition might impede his fighting.

Feeling increasingly irritated, Fenris headed to the hanged man. Varric would likely know. The dwarf had a habit of gathering information seemingly without trying, and he was closer to Anders than Fenris had ever been.

When he arrived at the Hanged Man, he found Varric talking to Isabela at a table in the corner. Isabela was leaning on her hands, looking morosely down at her drink, and something in Varric's expression was more serious than usual.

Fenris sat down heavily on a spare chair at their table. "Alright," he said. "What has gotten into the mage?"

Isabela raised her eyebrows. "You didn't hear?"

Fenris looked at her, his face stiff. Was she deliberately being tactless? "No, Isabela, if I had, I wouldn't have asked. I have been able to do and _hear_ little enough these past two weeks while I endured Anders' treatment, which he was supposed to finish today. But when I arrived at his clinic he sent me away. Tell me why - you clearly know something."

Varric sighed. "Broody, you might want to give Blondie a little space for a while. Things went a bit wrong on the mission he roped Hawke into for the underground."

"Oh," Fenris said. That told him something, but was clearly not everything. "Just how wrong did this mission go?"

Varric grimaced. "I don't know that he'd want the details shar-"

"He nearly killed a girl," Isabela said, ignoring Varric's glare. "The girl we were there to save. He got really mad when he saw the Templars - did that _thing_ he does, you know - and when they were all dead the girl was freaking out, because, you know, glowing man killing everybody. And, well, I guess she called Justice a demon, and Justice did _not_ like that, so..." she trailed off.

"But Hawke talked him down," Varric said. "That's the important part. Blondie is fine. The girl is fine. We're all _fine_. We just need to give him a couple of days and he'll be back to normal."

Isabela rolled her eyes and picked up her beer. "I don't think he's ever going to be fine, Varric. I don't even... I can hardly see that foolish boy I used to know. That free spirit. Ha - spirit!" she said, but her tone was mirthless. "Sometimes I think he's not even there anymore. It's just that... thing, walking around in his skin."

"Hey, stop it," Varric said. "You know that's not true. If it were, things might have ended very differently today, and I don't think Blondie would be as upset as he is. Give him a break."

"Hmm," Isabela grunted. Then she downed her drink and stood up. "Well, if you see the Anders _I_ used to know anywhere, let me know." She turned and headed to the bar.

Varric sighed and smiled tiredly at Fenris. "Give him some space, Broody. Now's not the time for you to clash heads with him, OK? I'm sure he'll be happy to help you out in a few days."

Fenris sat, absorbing their words. The demon that possessed the mage had taken over and nearly killed the girl Anders had wanted to save. And yet he hadn't. And Varric was right - the mage was clearly very upset by the incident.

Varric was likely right, too, that Fenris was the last person Anders wanted to see, and it cut to realise that. Though Fenris had begun to warm to the mage, he had given no sign of it - too concerned that he might accidentally reveal what Anders' attentions to his ears had inspired in his dreaming mind.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I hadn't realised what had happened."

"Well, how could you?" Varric replied. "Don't sweat it, Broody. It'll work itself out. Hawke will talk to him and straighten him out - you'll see."

Fenris grunted in agreement, but found he wanted to do something more than just leave it to Hawke this time.

***

The next morning found Fenris standing awkwardly in line in the shop that doubled as the headquarters of Lirene's operation to help Fereldan refugees. He didn't want to buy anything, but there was something of a queue for her attention, and the glares of those who had been waiting ahead of him let him know that they would not appreciate him cutting in.

Eventually, the queue shifted forward, and Fenris found himself in front of a tired-looking middle-aged woman with sharp eyes.

"Yes?" she asked. "You don't look like you need much in the way of handouts - you want to buy something?"

He shook his head. "I understand you collect donations for the clinic in Darktown," he said.

She sniffed. "I might do. What's it to you?"

"I... would like to help the clinic, but I did not want to simply donate. I understand that the Healer there is sometimes in need of equipment that is expensive or difficult to come by. I wondered - do you know of anything specific that he might need?"

Lirene gave him a measuring look. "If you want to help the people here, best thing really is to just donate some money. That way Anders can decide what he needs most. Usually it's nothing as fancy as what you're imagining. Blankets. Elfroot. Embrium. Sometimes it's soap. Or one of those cheap pallets he has breaks and he needs to buy a new one. If you want to help, give us money. That's what we need."

Fenris flushed. "I... understand. It is just... I was fortunate enough to benefit from an expensive instrument he used, and he said it had been very helpful with all the children. I thought perhaps I might buy something like that. Something that is usually overlooked in exchange for more pressing needs, but would help a lot of people if he had it."

Lirene sighed. "I don't know," she said shortly. "And you're holding up the line. If you want to get Anders some fancy equipment there probably are things he'd like, but it's him you should be asking really. If you want to donate, there's a box in that corner. Otherwise I'm afraid I'm going to need to ask you to move aside and let me see to someone who needs my help."

Fenris's stomach dropped with disappointment, but he moved back. Perhaps it was selfish of him to want to get Anders something particular. The mage would surely welcome a large donation for the clinic to spend on whatever he wanted, but it had seemed... appropriate to buy him some piece of equipment like the thing the mage had used to see into Fenris's ear. And of course, he could not ask the mage what he needed. Without some reason to trust him, Anders wouldn't even want to see Fenris at all.

Sighing, Fenris was turning to go when an elderly elf caught his eye.

"'Ere, son," the old man said. He was leaning on crutches and only seemed to have about five teeth in his mouth, but his eyes were clear and focused. "You wanna get t'healer summat?"

Fenris nodded and stepped closer.

"Ger'im a termoometer," the man said.

"I'm sorry?" Fenris said, not wishing to be rude, but struggling to understand him through his broken mouth and thick accent.

"Termoometer," the man said again, seeming confident. "Tha's wor'ee said. When all us an' 'em littluns wos down wit' the coughing fever. 'Tis a thing as gets a temmerature. When you's too 'ot and sum. Little glass thing tha' says when you's jus' warm and when you's too hot. Tha's wor'ee wan'ed."

Fenris frowned, understanding the gist of what the man was describing - some device that would help identify a fever - though Fenris was by no means sure he'd caught the word for it correctly. "A 'termooter'?" he asked.

"Termoo _meter_ ," the old man corrected.

Smiling with more confidence than he felt, Fenris repeated the word again, and when the elderly elf seemed satisfied, he gave his thanks and left.

Now he just needed to find such a device.


End file.
